SEMO Gymnastics fall short to Illinois State in final home meet of the season

SEMO gymnastics came up just short of winning their final tri-meet at home, scoring a total of 193.500 points on senior night at Houck Field House on Feb. 17.

The Redhawks came into the meet with a perfect home record of 3-0 and welcomed the Illinois State Cardinals, and the Fisk University Bulldogs for their final home meet.

SEMO competed well throughout, however could not overcome the Cardinals, as they scored a total of 195.975 points, outsourcing the Redhawks by 2.475 points.

The Cardinals took the top three places in the vault event, first in the beam and the bars events, and take the all around gymnast of the night to help them beat the Redhawks for the second time this season.

“I think we had some really great points, and some things we want to forget about and build on, but we ended the meet the way that we wanted to and were able to send our seniors out on a high note, ultimately that was it was about, just giving them one last hurrah at home,” head coach Ashley Lawson said.

The Redhawks had standout performers themselves, as the top three in the floor events were all from SEMO. Sophomore Taylor Ingle and senior Lydia Webb were second and third respectively in the best all-around gymnast of the night earning them second on the night.

“I’m really happy with it (my performance), I think it was really important to come back after that double meet weekend, we were all really tired, we just wanted to come in guns blazing, and trust in our training,” Ingle said.

The Redhawks ended their time at the Houck Field house with a record of 4-1, only losing to Illinois State, during the meets that were held there.

“It’s so indescribable, the environment of Houck has changed every year, but if I ever had to use just one word to describe Houck it’s family, its a smaller area but it makes it feel more homey and cozy, it makes you love it more, and it makes you love your team more,” Webb said.

After the meet the Redhawks held a special ceremony for their seniors, celebrating the achievements of the four seniors in the program.

“They are phenomenal leaders, and they lead both in and out of the gym, and they have helped create this culture that is just a loving environment and for that I’m extremely grateful. Not only are they gymnastically are they fantastic, but they are genuinely good people, we’re really gonna miss them,” Coach Lawson said.

Ingle echoed this sentiment saying that the seniors have helped the team grow through their kindness and dedication to the team.

“They are so loving and so dedicated to the sport and to the team, and you can tell that in everything that they do, so knowing that those seniors have your back, and have been through it and can relate to you, especially our two seniors who are our coaches have really helped us improve,” Ingle said.

After a bye week next week the Redhawks have a meet on the road every weekend until the NCAA region championships on Apr. 4.

“Our goals are always to be one tenth better than we were the previous week, each routine one tenth better, and each score one tenth better,” Webb said.

While the Redhawks are competing with schools that are much larger, Coach Lawson says that the team is very excited for the size of and magnitude of these upcoming meets.

“We’re going to big arenas, and so we’re excited to be at Nebraska, and be at Illinois, and head back to Mizzou again and so we are really just continuing to put our program on the map, and competing with some of the top programs in the country, so we are ready to get after it,” Coach Lawson said.

The Redhawks next meet is the Nebraska quad-meet in Lincoln, Nebraska on Mar. 3 at 1 pm.